[plug] New to list - file system

[Bret Busby]

Brad Campbell wrote:
> 
> "Mike Massen, Network Power Systems" wrote:
> >
> > At 11:07 AM 3/02/2000 +0800, you wrote:
> > >On Wed, 2 Feb 2000, Mike Massen,  Network Power Systems wrote:
> > >
> > >> A.   Install linux fresh on a Hdisk 420Mb cap but retain the old
> > >
> > >Possible, but not for a beginner. Allow at least 1GB for linux, plus a DOS
> > >partition. Keep your current HDD and add a new one for linux. 420mb is a
> > >paperweight these days.
> >
> > mmm OK - I take it then that even with a larger drive its either not
> > possible or not appropriate to have the DOS 6.2 file system to base linux
> > on. ?
> >
> > In other words - is it essential the root linux drive have linux file system
> > only and not any other file system ?
> >
> > The reason my initial favour of this is I can just unplug the drive and
> > plug it into any other of my Win 3.11 or W95 systems to do backup, transfer
> > or whatever with the hassle of a nic etc etc
> >
> > :)M
> 
> One of the things your not looking at here is the cluster size of a
> fat16 system
> when you get up around 500mb, and worse for bigger.. Thats a massive
> amount of
> wasted space..
> 
> My advice.. go and buy a shiny new seagate/quantum 8gb drive for about
> $250
> make a 450mb dos partition in partition one, and go wild with ext2
> partitions
> on the rest of the drive..
> Then install lilo to boot dos/linux and have your dos partition mounted
> in linux
> 
> If you really want to have some fun, install dosemu and run most of your
> dos
> programs under linux..
> Wine for most of your win 3.11 programs..
> Then you may find you rarely have to boot back to dos/win311 at all..
> 
> If you need a hand doing any of this, there are bucketloads of howto's
> out there
> and most of us have done similar at least once and tend to be pretty
> happy to
> answer well targeted questions..
> 
> This way you can still plug the drive into another machine and access
> the fat
> partitions and it meets all of the above criteria..
> 
> --
> Brad....


I disagree with most of this.

I am no Linux guru, by any means.

However, I have a computer running RH LInux 5.2, Win98, and WinNT4.

I use 4 partitions; extfs2 (I believe it is named) for Linux, FAT32 for Win98,
NTFS for WinNT, and FAT16 for data.

The first three partitions that I have mentioned, give the most efficient disk
usage for the particular operating systems, and the FAT16 partition for the
data, allows the data in that partition, to be accessed by any of the operating
systems.

Whilst I believe that the RH6.x Linuces (?) will read the FAT32 and NTFS
kernels, thus eliminating the need for the inefficient FAT16 partition, if you
want to use other operating systems, that can equally access the data, such as
Win3.x, you need a FAT16 data partition. also, if at some time, you want to
install other operating systems such as NT, or Win2000, or, whateverm they may
not be able to read each other's filesystems, but, they can all read and write
to FAT16.

As far as I am aware, any of the currently available operating systems that you
are likely to encounter on a PC, and, Win3.x, can all equally well access a FAT
16 partition.

Also, from what I understand, whilst WinE has been mentioned, from what I
understand, the success of runnning Windows applications on top of it, varies
between applications, and, between users.

As you are a Linux novice (probably not too far behind my level of knowledge), I
suggest that you follow a simliar method to me.

I have a Quantum 6.4GD HDD (I believe that you can acquire them for less than
$200, now), and I have a 1GB partition for Win98, a 1 GB partition for WinNT, a
2GB partition for Linux, and a 2GB partition for data (the sizes are rough
approximations).

If you did a similar thing, either with the same OS's, and with the data
partition split in half, and the other half for Win3.x, I see no reason why it
should not work well for you, or, doing it by replacing something like WinNT
with the Win3.x partition.

The only thing, is that you have to be careful with the order of installing the
operating systems, and the order of the partitioning, to get it to work.

It is a bit of messing around, to get it partitioned, and the operating systems
insatlled, but, once it is done, it is worth it, and it works well, and LILO
allows you to easily select the operating system into which you want to boot, at
boot up, and at reboot.

Also, doing it this way, means that you will not be chucked into Linux at the
deep end, to find whether you sink or swim immediately, but, you will be able to
continue using your familiar applications, in the familiar environments, while
learning Linux at your leisure, without any threat to your other work, which is
a much better, and, less risky, way of doing it.

-- 

Bret Busby

........................................